//------------------------------// // The Student Becomes the Teacher // Story: Burnt Orange Juice // by Mike the Red //------------------------------// "Now I need you to apologize to me," I addressed the librarian directly. It was my turn to give her a harsh stare as she hung her head. "Look at me when I'm talking to you," I added sternly. She slowly turned her head toward me and looked up at me. I had to remind myself that as a stallion, I was now a fair piece taller than her. "Okay, good -- I don't know how many times I told you that calling me by my human name in the presence of other ponies is highly disrespectful," I began. She nodded her head silently. "So I need to know why you chose now as a perfect time to do that in front of Mr. Rich." "You -- you upset me! You embarrassed me in front of his wife!" she shot back. "I find that hard to believe," I retorted. "And at any rate, it still upsets me when you do it -- so I have one simple request of you -- please don't do it again. Especially when it's in front of a fairly large number of ponies -- I noticed how many were watching us when you did it. Now they're probably going to call me by that name as well." She continued to hang her head in shame and uttered a just barely audible "I'm sorry" before turning tail and heading back to the library. I chose to follow her at this point. "I'm coming along with you, Twilight," I stated loudly enough not only for her to hear, but any nearby ponies as well. Considering how busy Ponyville was at this time of day, there were quite a few to witness this exchange. Several ponies turned their heads my way in curiosity, then looked away when I glanced at them. Serves them right I thought as I continued to follow the librarian. I was somewhat surprised to see that she chose to ignore my statement, but continued her brisk trot towards her home. I continued to match her pace, though my long strides made it an easy walk for me. I heard her mutter under her breath, but maintained my silence. Other ponies would glance in our direction as I continued to follow the librarian but would turn away from my gaze when I caught sight of them. It wasn't until we reached the library that she finally noticed that I had followed her the entire way. "Why did you follow me?" she asked, almost indignantly. "Haven't you embarrassed me enough?" "It was not my intention to embarrass you -- but rather that I still want to talk to you some more," I replied. My expression was unreadable to her, though I tried to remain respectful. "What do you want to talk about?" she asked, annoyance evident in her tone. "I have studies to get caught up on!" "I'm still looking for a place to stay right now, since I'm still new here," I stated. I gave her an almost expectant look. "You're still welcome to stay here with me, Aurora," she said, her tone softening a little. I smiled at her response, which elicited a smile from her. "What are you studying?" I asked. "Thaumaturgical principles regarding temporal foci and locus," she responded brightly, expecting me to understand the finer points of magic use regarding time travel. "Time travel magic?" I asked, giving her a puzzled look. "You're smarter than I gave you credit for," she giggled and entered her house. I followed her in to join her in studying these finer principles. She went down to her basement and left the door open for me to follow her. As I cleared the doorway, she magically closed and locked the door behind me. The steps were still dark and I tumbled down, crashing into her before we both landed on the floor rather hard. "Ouch! Why did you do that?" she asked angrily. Her horn sparked to life, flashing red. "Firstly, you closed the door behind me so I couldn't see -- and you already know I have some difficulty going downstairs as it is. With it being so dark that I couldn't see, I stumbled and fell. I'm sorry, Twilight, but this one's on you," I replied, grinning sheepishly but rubbing my left foreleg with my right to rub off some of the pain. Her horn flared brighter at this point. "That's the last time I invite you to study with me," she growled, enveloping me with her aura and lifting me to the door, opening the door and depositing me on the other side, then slamming the door shut and locking it in front of me. "Damn," I interjected before turning around and making my way to the front door of the library, exiting the tree and closing the door behind me. I decided to make my way back to Carousel Boutique at this point and began slowly trotting in that direction. At this point, I was pretty upset and tried to avoid talking to or bumping into any other ponies that were between me and my destination. Perhaps I should have been paying attention to where I was going, because I bumped into another pony before realizing what had happened. Said pony was a grey pegasus mare with an unkempt blonde mane and tail, but the feature that stole my attention was the fact that her eyes seemed to be out of focus. "Oh, excuse me," she offered softly, her right eye meeting my gaze. Her left seemed to stare off into space somewhere. "No, it's my fault, I should have been paying attention," I replied warmly. I couldn't help but notice that her eyes continued to try to focus, her left, then her right. She gave me a sheepish grin. "You look like the pony who cried for help a couple of days ago," she said. "But, weren't you a bit smaller? And ... I think ... you were ... a filly?" she asked, her confusion becoming obvious as she struck a pensive pose. "Yeah, but magic can do strange things to ponies," I replied. "And thanks again for your help, even if it came a bit too late to help me." "Well, I tried to help but I was busy doing my job -- which I lost," she responded, hanging her head for a moment. "But I got a new job!" she added brightly, smiling a bit. I took a moment to realize she was wearing a brown uniform and matching cap, along with a satchel around her body. "You're a mail carrier now?" I asked. "Yep!" she proclaimed, nodding her head, and smiling brightly at me. She approached me and gave me a hug, which I reciprocated. We held each other for a few moments before she released me, blushing a bit. "Ooh, sorry about that," she said as she lowered her ears and gazed down from me. "No, no, it's quite all right," I said, smiling warmly at her. "I could use a few good hugs right now," I added. Without hesitation, she was back in my forelegs again, a big smile on her face as she wrapped her forelegs around my barrel. "Pretty enthusiastic, aren't you?" I chuckled as she closed her eyes and hugged me a little tighter.